Flea Market questions?

Are Flea Markets still in, in your area? Or have they kind of fizzled out? Several years ago before Ebay got so popular seems around here there was about 5 or 6 flea markets in every little town and a few in between the towns. I still enjoy browsing through one if I happen to have time and come across one. Well I have a building that I'm making payments on every month and I need to put something in to make it pay for itself. Been thinking of the flea market booth rental but not sure just how good it might go over. So I have a few other questions about the flea market business in your area.

1. How much is rental per booth?

2. How big are the booths?

3. How much commission is charged for sold items?

4. What terms/agreements are made when renting a booth?

5. Any pro's and con's?

If the booths are about 5' wide then I might have enough space for about 45-50 booths. Down fall is, my building is not on a main highway but on a side street across from post office and next to school grounds. Still traffic area but not like on the main highway. Also, small town.

This building is what my wife and I placed a down payment on for her business which never got off to a good start. I was, or may still, going to put in a hunting/fishing sport store selling live bait, archery equipment, muzzle loading equipment, venison sausage/jerky making, and a indoor archery range. But I got my quote from insurance today in the mail and my insurance will go up 2.5 times what it is now. So now I'm trying to think of something else that might make some money.

There have been 3 like you are considering in the two little nearby towns. All were dead in the water before they ever got a start. Some of local people people might come in out of curosity, and that's about the last you see of them. The number of people who are really interested in the wares can be few and far between. There are a great number of old store fronts around here that no one wants to try a busines in. If there isn't a coffee shop near there, it is possible one might get a steady local clientel.

Sounds like your talking a mall type of thing. When I think flea market, it's outside on weekends usually. The few we have here charge $20 a day for a 8x10 foot spot.

There is a mall type market here as well, open 7 days a week, mostly new stuff and crafts, there are a few booths that sell the older stuff (antiques or so they would like to you to think). The rent is around $400 a month (electric if needed is extra). There is no commision, seller has to be present or the spot is closed.

Here's a pretty good site to find flea markets in different states. If your market has a website (good idea) you can also link it to this site for more exposure (think tourists)....................http://www.fleamarkets.com/

I was a vendor at a large market near here last year and plan to do it again this year. They have 200 10' x 10' indoor spots but the waiting list is looonnng. There are 200 10' x 30' spots under a roof and I believe they are $10 or $12 a day. I rent an outdoor on blacktop corner space that is 12' x 30' and the one next to it which is 10' x 30' for a total cost of $18 a day. The market is open Monday, Wednesday and Saturday year round inside, but mostly May through October for outside. There is no commission charge for items sold. At this market you must reserve and pay by the month to guarantee your space. It is possible to show up on market days and get a space, but the good ones are reserved. I prefer to reserve because it doesn't cost anything extra...course you risk losing if rained out...and I have a lot of repeat customers that need to know where I'll be every time. It's a well known fact that the market is the big money maker. This market by my estimate must do between $500,000-750,000 a year just in space rent. They also rent out tables at $6 each and deliver them to your space. Most if not all market owners also run the food and drink concession. Location isn't as important in a smaller town I don't think. Word of mouth is a powerful tool in addition to some well placed signs. Flea markets are a funny business though. Without customers no vendors will return. Without vendors no customers will return. I've seen small markets go under because of that cycle. It's important to pick a day or days when no other market is open if possible. There are only so many vendors and they usually frequent the same markets. Open on their off days and they will come. So much for my two cents worth. All I know for sure is I spend many days in the hot sun for a few hundred dollars and see the management hauling in thousands in rentals and food sales. So if I had my druthers I'd take management. Course I don't have the means, so I'll just keep on selling stuff. Sorry to be so long winded but I rarely find a topic I know anything about.

I live in a small, rural, largely hispanic community -- the flea market format is alive and well here, in a small and informal form. A lot of the local businesses are on fairly large lots and allow vendors to set up in the parking lot for a nominal fee (or nothing in some cases.) The one I use is essentially the local liquer/gas/pizza joint and has a dirt lot ofabout five acres. First-come first-served (or sometimes rule of the mighty -- I've had to demonstrate I can swear in spanish to keep my space a few times when someone wanted to roust me from it because they thought they had dibs on it because it was their space the last two weeks ... )

Fee is $2, the store makes money on increased traffic. Usually thirty or forty people. It's half and half "yard sales" from folks who live too far out in the country to have a yard sale at their place, and half established vendors.

That sounds like the sort of flea market I want to start here - a glorified yard sale. I think it would work because barter fairs used to be a big thing until too much drug use got them busted. Not exactly a family thing!

I've got a pretty good idea of how to do it, but I'm also a firm believer in learning from books. Are there any books or websites for setting up a flea market? I keep finding info about selling, but not running one.

Most of the above are for the flea market vendor rather than operator. Your local library may be able to get loaner copies and may well have others listed in the title index.

Flea markets vary so much it would be difficult to give precise information.

I have friends who currently have a booth in an indoor flea market in Paris, TN. They pay $150 a month for a space about 20'x20'. (two $75 10'x10' ones). Type where you at check out at counter. No commission on sales. However, the management folks who have it also operate a salvage grocery in it and sell repaired used major appliances out of it so they have basically two businesses besides the flea market booths.

Set up so 'the old timers' have the booths at the walls. New comers have booths in the middle of the room. My friends have only been there about three months and say it looks like about half of the middle booths have either turned over or are empty.

Say the building would hold 30 booths. Assume an average 60% fill rate. Assume $75 a month. 30 x .6 x $.75 = $1,350. From that would come all of your overhead and something for yourself. Say overhead was half or $675. That leaves $675 for you. Say you are open M-Sat, 9 AM - 6 PM - 9 hours. Assuming a four week month, that is 216 open hours. Divided into $675 means you are netting about $2.13 per hour. Worth it?

We rent shelf units at each of the three locations. Each self has five shelves per unit and stand about 6 feet tall. They are about 3 feet wide. We pay $35 per month for each shelf.

We also rent a booth, which is 8x10 feet. We pay $115 for the booth.

The BEST thing about renting space from this company at 3 different locations is that THEY ARE SOOOO EASY TO WORK WITH!!!!! They keep clean places and run tight ships, but have great, 'can do' attitudes. They are friendly and fun and always work for the benefit of the vendor and customer, NOT themselves.

This is probably why they have a waiting list of 100 people at each of the 3 locations.

They do not charge any commissions, but do deduct 2% from our sales if the customer uses Visa/MC on the item they purchased.

Keep the place spotlessly clean, and be friendly and easy to work with, and the people will follow!
clove

My overhead would be $250 a month note payment, appr. $175 utilities(phone, water, electricity). As Ken said, would it be worth it? I think to be fair to the people who are renting I should be open at least 5 days a week. Probably Tues. thru Sat. and hours would be 8 am to 5 pm.

Down side to all this. My wife went back to her high paying factory job so I take care of the kids. Get them off to school, pick them up from school and would have to babysit them on the days they are not in school such as teacher conferences, spring/fall break, summer vacations. The more I think about this the more I think maybe I shouldn't be putting anykind of business in for myself.

So now I'm thinking maybe I'll just take my loss, stay here at home and build a building here for some kind of a home based business. That way I can take care of the kids, raise my summer goats, raise my chickens, raise my garden, and do a little seasonal deer processing for extra christmas and year end tax money.

Have you thought about just renting it out to somebody else looking to set up a business? Just doesn't seem like you have the time needed to run a business. Well, maybe a daycare. Course that requires lots of regulations have to be met and building codes, etc. But being close to a school there might be someone interested in operating some type of a child care facility that you could maybe go in partnership with. You could even check with your school board. Do they need extra facility space? I'd be checking around the community to see what's needed and isn't there yet.

I think Ken has the right idea. Sell on e-bay from the comfort of your home. Customers across the entire country that are interested in your product. No packing, traveling, setting up, tearing down, etc. Don't have to worry about location, location, location.
However, I am going to Quartzite, AZ today. Biggest tail -gater event around. Lasts for 2 month's straight and people come from all over the US to sell. Motor homes as far as the eye can see. I spoke to a couple of vendors there last week when we went. One had a mainstream location, cost $1170 for the two months. They camp, set up to sell and have utilities on their site. Have to reserve 1 year in advance.
Another guy, off the main stream, no utilities, dry camps on his site and pays for a shower somewhere else. Cost $250/mo.
We usually attend every year. It is about 180 miles from here but makes for a good weekend outing. If we want to stay over we go another 30 miles to Blythe, CA and get a motel. There is such a variey of things for sale it is really interesting. Antiques from other parts of the US that are not locally available, fur traders, gemstones and jewelry, tools, books, you name it and it will be there somewhere. It is big, the entire town nearly and you may be in danger of wearing out a pair of shoes.
E-bay sounds so much easier but if you are looking for a social event and a mid winter diversion this is good. Lasts Jan and Feb. Check it out:http://www.desertusa.com/Cities/az/quartzite.html

RH I don't think you should abandon this idea. First, you wouldn't have to be there all day because the way the ones work around here is that the booth renters take turns being at the store. You might need to fill in now and then. How old are the kids? You can set up a little area for them with books, crayons, paper and let them be there a little too. Before we had a day care generation, that's how folks did it.

One nice aspect about laptops, if you can find an Internet access for it, it to allow you to double check eBay prices before your purchase. For example, you see a Stanley #27 block plane on one day. That night you check the price and find out what they have sold for on eBay by checking completed auctions, then see how many are listed now. Past sales high, no or few current listings, figure out what you are willing to pay when you go back the next day.

My past criteria is I tried not to purchase for over half what I thought I could resell for quickly. However, now that I realize how much eBay/PayPal is taking, my criteria is going down to one-third or less of what I can reasonably expect to sell it for. That is, if my sales goal is $10, I don't want to pay more than $3.33 - less if possible.

Somewhat become specialist in a particular area.

Ken Scharabok

P.S. Probably the best weekend to attend would be the final one before it closes. Vendors would likely be willing to wheel and deal so they don't have to haul the stuff back home.

Several years ago someone told me about a similar place. It actually had a recreational building for the vendors' use, including a mini-store and coin laundry. Pretty well standard campground services.

Here in Missouri flea markets used to be all over the place. They rented spaces 8X10 for $20 a month. They used to be busy as heck, but the last couple of years most of them have gone out of business. I know I don't go to them much either. Seems like the antique places are hanging in there but I think they are mostly hobbies. I think the problem is the economy. People around here just don't have the extra money to spend like they used to. I don't care what the government tells us, money is still tight here, jobs are lousy if there are any, and benefits! What's that?

I was a vendor at a large market near here last year and plan to do it again this year. They have 200 10' x 10' indoor spots but the waiting list is looonnng. There are 200 10' x 30' spots under a roof and I believe they are $10 or $12 a day. I rent an outdoor on blacktop corner space that is 12' x 30' and the one next to it which is 10' x 30' for a total cost of $18 a day. The market is open Monday, Wednesday and Saturday year round inside, but mostly May through October for outside. There is no commission charge for items sold. At this market you must reserve and pay by the month to guarantee your space. It is possible to show up on market days and get a space, but the good ones are reserved. I prefer to reserve because it doesn't cost anything extra...course you risk losing if rained out...and I have a lot of repeat customers that need to know where I'll be every time. It's a well known fact that the market is the big money maker. This market by my estimate must do between $500,000-750,000 a year just in space rent. They also rent out tables at $6 each and deliver them to your space. Most if not all market owners also run the food and drink concession. Location isn't as important in a smaller town I don't think. Word of mouth is a powerful tool in addition to some well placed signs. Flea markets are a funny business though. Without customers no vendors will return. Without vendors no customers will return. I've seen small markets go under because of that cycle. It's important to pick a day or days when no other market is open if possible. There are only so many vendors and they usually frequent the same markets. Open on their off days and they will come. So much for my two cents worth. All I know for sure is I spend many days in the hot sun for a few hundred dollars and see the management hauling in thousands in rentals and food sales. So if I had my druthers I'd take management. Course I don't have the means, so I'll just keep on selling stuff. Sorry to be so long winded but I rarely find a topic I know anything about.

Well I have pretty much decided that I am only going to hold on to the building for another month or two and just have indoor close out/yard sale until most of all we have accumulated has sold. I'm still seriously thinking about going back into the deer processing business and if I do, I want to have it at my house so I will be able to be there at all times. Will still be able to do some farm work, take care of kids if home, etc and be available incase someone shows up with a deer. So instead of making payments on the business I'll just use that money and start slowly building up my home based business. I figured if I just cut up deer only I could make an extra $5000-8000 during deer seasons. And if I get more electric fence up around more acreages I could make another couple thousand raising kid goats through the summer time. Also raise most all my veggies during the summer and that could save us another `1000 or so per year. So really I think with less overhead at home I would probably come out better then keeping the shop.

But thanks everyone for your input and ideals. It is very much appreciated.

Well I have pretty much decided that I am only going to hold on to the building for another month or two and just have indoor close out/yard sale until most of all we have accumulated has sold. I'm still seriously thinking about going back into the deer processing business and if I do, I want to have it at my house so I will be able to be there at all times. Will still be able to do some farm work, take care of kids if home, etc and be available incase someone shows up with a deer. So instead of making payments on the business I'll just use that money and start slowly building up my home based business. I figured if I just cut up deer only I could make an extra $5000-8000 during deer seasons. And if I get more electric fence up around more acreages I could make another couple thousand raising kid goats through the summer time. Also raise most all my veggies during the summer and that could save us another `1000 or so per year. So really I think with less overhead at home I would probably come out better then keeping the shop.

But thanks everyone for your input and ideals. It is very much appreciated.